1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to an apparatus for treating gases particularly to a new and useful sorption vacuum pump for treatment of gases with a sorbent material in an evaporated chamber wherein the sorbent material is moved by vibration of the housing and the gases may be circulated over the moved sorbent material.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Sorption processes for evacuating, where a sorbent is charged into the space to be evacuated and discharged again after loading with gas, have been proposed on many occasions before. By the term sorbent are to be understood in the following all substances which are able to absorb gases, whether involving adsorption, capillary condensation, solution processes or chemical reactions.
Sorption processes in which a specific quantity of a sorbent is charged once into the space to be evacuated have proved very satisfactory, but they are limited to small volumes or short operating times. Proposals for performing this process continuously have not found acceptance in the practice because the efficiency of such equipments was poor, perhaps this is because the transport mechanism for introduction of the sorbent into the space to be evacuated caused the gases to become entrained into the container.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,544,214 a method has been described for the evacuation of gases and vapors by means of a sorbent which is passed continuously via air locks into the space to be evacuated and out again after loading with gas, and where the sorbent is passed through the space to be evacuated by means of a vibratory conveyor arrangement, that is, without using a moving carrier. Preferably a regenerable granular sorbent is circulated and regenerated outside the space to be evacuated, e.g. by heating. Several sorption pumps of this kind can be connected in series if a particularly high vacuum is to be attained. Also, vibratory conveyors of different design can be used. For this patent it is known, for example, to provide for such a pump a vibratory transport path in the form of a spiral chute on the inside of a hollow cone. The pumps used can be operated with the full efficiency of the sorbent used, because a carrier moving with the sorbent through the space to be evacuated does not exist. The vibratory transport path moves only the sorbent, not itself.